770 



UTRECHTUT, RE, MI. 



occasioned the Spanish war of succession, which 

 called all Europe to arms, and lasted till 1710. 

 The question was, whether the crowns of Spain, 

 the Netherlands, Naples and Sicily, Milan, and the 

 vast Spanish possessions in America, should be 

 united with Austria, already so powerful, or with 

 France, which was less formidable. The emperor 

 Leopold I. claimed the whole of these dominions 

 for his second son, Charles (subsequently the em- 

 peror Charles VI). Louis XIV. claimed the crown 

 for his second nephew, Philip of Anjou (subsequent- 

 ly king Philip V.), on the ground of the testament 

 of Charles II. England, the German empire, and 

 the states-general, took part in the war on the side 

 of the former, while Bavaria and Cologne sided 

 with France. William III., king of England and 

 stadtholder of Holland, had been the founder of the 

 league against France; and Anne, his successor, 

 adopted his political views. After several bloody 

 campaigns, Louis XIV. was inclined to yield ; but 

 the death of the emperor Joseph I. (successor of 

 Leopold I.), in 1711, changed the face of affairs; 

 and, at the same time, the tories rose to favour 

 with the queen. They were for peace, and displaced 

 the whigs and the war party, at the head of which 

 was Marlborough. As Charles of Austria, brother 

 of Joseph I., had come into possession of Austria, 

 Hungary, Bohemia, and the dignity of German em- 

 peror, the addition of the Spanish crown would 

 have given him a degree of power fatal to the 

 balance of Europe. The English court, therefore, 

 showed a willingness to enter into negotiations for 

 peace, which had already been several times com- 

 menced in vain. The disgrace of Marlborough, 

 caused, as is said, by French intrigue, or, as others 

 say, by the pride of the queen, offended by the 

 duchess of Marlborough, was favourable to the 

 negotiations. Count Tallard, who lived as a pri- 

 soner of war in England, made the first proposals to 

 Bolingbroke, who had risen to power after the fall 

 of the whigs ; and, in October, 1711, the prelimin- 

 aries were made public. England declaring that 

 she was willing to conclude a separate peace, the 

 emperor was obliged to consent to a congress ; and 

 Utrecht was chosen as the place of meeting. The 

 most distinguished of the ambassadors assembled 

 there were the marshal d'Uxelles and the abbe Po- 

 lignac on the part of France, the bishop of Bristol 

 for England, and count Sinzendorf for the Roman 

 emperor. France offered to acknowledge the 

 dynasty then occupying the British throne ; to 

 demolish the fortifications of Dunkirk ; to cede the 

 islands of St Christopher, Newfoundland, &c. ; to 

 give up Hudson's bay, with the reservation of the 

 cod fishery ; to cede to the states-general Ypres, 

 Knocke, &c. ; and to conclude a treaty of commerce 

 with them; in return for which she required 

 Douay, Bouchain, &c. She also agreed to renounce 

 all claims upon the Italian countries belonging to 

 the Spanish monarchy ; in return for which the 

 house of Hapsburg was to give up all claims to the 

 Spanish throne ; on the Rhine, the frontiers were 

 to remain the same as they had been before the 

 war ; the electors of Bavaria and Cologne were to 

 be restored to all the rights which they had enjoyed 

 before the war ; in return for which she was to ac- 

 knowledge Prussia as a kingdom ; the crowns of 

 France and Spain were never to be united in one 

 person, &c. The emperor demanded that France 

 should restore every thing which she had received 

 by the peaces of Miinster, Nimeguen and Ryswick, 

 as well as all the conquered places in Spain, Italy 



and the Netherlands, and that the whole of the 

 Spanish possessions should devolve upon the house 

 of Hapsburg. England demanded the acknowledg- 

 ment of the Protestant succession ; the removal of 

 the Pretender from France; the cession of the 

 islands of St Christopher, &c. ; the conclusion of a 

 treaty of commerce, and a proper indemnification 

 for the allies. The French diplomatists soon found 

 opportunity to interrupt the negotiations, in order 

 to bring about a separate peace with England, in 

 which case they hoped to obtain more moderate 

 conditions from the others. The queen of England, 

 in fact, concluded an armistice, by which the opera- 

 tions of her allies were impeded ; and the emperor 

 was at last obliged to give up Spain, and to enter 

 into a disadvantageous treaty of evacuation. Aug. 

 19, France and England agreed on the chief points. 

 The states-general, Portugal, Prussia, Savoy (which 

 received Sicily), &c., joined in the negotiation- ; 

 and thus France effected, April 11, 1713, nine se- 

 parate treaties at Utrecht. England obtained from 

 France every thing mentioned above, from Spain, 

 Gibraltar and Minorca, with the trade in negroes to 

 the Spanish West Indies, and laid the foundation of 

 her naval power, which has since become so gigan- 

 tic. In this respect, also, the treaty of commerce 

 and navigation, signed on the same day, is remark- 

 able, the principles of which Napoleon wished to 

 carry into effect against England one hundred years 

 later. The seventeenth article provided that it 

 should be lawful for all the subjects of Great Bri- 

 tain to sail to ports at war with France, and for 

 those of France to sail to ports at war with Great 

 Britain, and not only to go from the hostile ports to 

 a neutral one, but also from a neutral port to a hos- 

 tile one. This privilege of passage was to compre- 

 hend all persons on board of the vessels not soldiers ; 

 and, by article eighteen, this liberty was extended to 

 all goods on board of the vessel, even if they should 

 belong to the enemy, contraband of war excepted. 

 The commercial liberty of neutrals was acknow- 

 ledged, and the principle that " free ships make free 

 goods." See Le Traite d 1 Utrecht reclame par la 



France, &c. (Leipsic, 1814) England felt, on the 



occasion of this treaty, what influence she might 

 have on the continental powers : as her secession 

 forced her allies to make similar treaties. By this 

 secession, she obtained advantageous conditions ; for 

 the formidable Dunkirk was incapacitated from do- 

 ing her harm ; she obtained Hudson's bay, and great 

 consequence in the West Indies, the possession of 

 Gibraltar, and, through this, the command of the 

 Mediterranean. Peace was not concluded at Ut- 

 recht with the emperor and the empire : the nego- 

 ciations were not brought to the desired close until 

 1714, at Rastadt and Baden. Spain and Austria 

 were not reconciled to each other until the treaty 

 of Vienna, April 30, 1725. See Louis XIV., Eu- 

 gene, and Marlborough. 



UT, RE, MI, &c. Ut, in music, is the first of 

 the syllables by which, to this day, the tones of the 

 diatonic scale are designated in France and Italy. 

 Guido d'Arezzo, a Benedictine monk, and, at a 

 later period, abbot at Avellana, a native of Arezzo, 

 was distinguished in the eleventh century, by his 

 method of instruction in singing, and the important 

 improvements which he introduced into music. 

 Until his time, the want of a proper designation of 

 the tones of the octave made it necessary to prac- 

 tise, with much labour, the canto fermo, so called, 

 the only method of singing then in use ; and the 

 difficulty was increased as the proportion of the 



